Re: "Our failed fling with the welfare state -- Liberals embarked on a noble experiment to protect everyone, says Noemie Emery, but the costs were too high," Sunday Points.

The headline of Noemie Emery's essay -- "Our failed fling with the welfare state" -- immediately brought to mind another failure of our federal government and politicians.

This failure can be labeled "Our failed fling with warfare" -- be it the Vietnam War, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, the drug war or, now, our war on obesity.

Our politicians have wasted a lot of taxpayer dollars poking the U.S. of A.'s nose into someone else's business with a claim that our security was at stake. We have not won any of these wars, and we are not about to. But we have ruined the lives of millions and financially broken our country doing it.

The money we have spent on welfare did a lot less harm for the dollar than what we have spent on warfare -- and a lot more good.